Is God a Police Officer or a Father?

You can feel grateful to a man who lets you off with a warning. That does not make him your father.

I learned that shortly after I got my driver’s license. Red and blue lights appeared in the mirror, and I became the most respectful sixteen-year-old in the state. Yes, sir. No, sir. Absolutely, officer. I found my registration in record time. I was polite, cooperative, and scared.

The officer took my license back to his car. When he returned, he told me he would let me off with a warning.

I felt relief. I felt grateful. But I did not love that man. He let me off, and that was the whole relationship.

Theologian Michael Reeves has used a helpful comparison: if you think of God as a police officer and your only problem as rule-breaking, the best outcome you can imagine is getting let off. You may feel relief, but relief is not the love of a child for a father.

A police officer can release you. He cannot bring you into his family.

Why Did Jesus Teach Us to Call God “Father”?

Jesus taught His disciples to pray to the God who made everything from nothing, hung the galaxies, and designed the human body. He could have begun with Master, Lord, or Almighty God. Each name tells the truth.

He began this way:

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.” (Matthew 6:9, ESV)

The Old Testament sometimes speaks of God as the Father of Israel, but Jesus made Father the characteristic address of His disciples. He spoke to God as the eternal Son who knows and loves His Father. Then He taught ordinary people to address God with the same family word.

That invitation does not make God smaller. Jesus says, “Our Father in heaven.” He is near to His children and exalted over all creation. Christian prayer holds both truths together: the intimacy of Father and the reverence of in heaven.

Why Do Unanswered Prayers Make Me Angry or Ashamed?

Pay attention to what happens in you when God does not answer a prayer the way you hoped. Your reaction may expose the kind of relationship you think you have with Him.

Some of us get angry. God, I have done my part. I show up. I serve. I read my Bible. Why are You not coming through for me? Beneath that anger sits a ledger. You think your obedience has put God in your debt.

Some of us sink into shame. Of course He did not answer. I have barely prayed. I keep failing in the same places. Why would He listen to me? That response keeps a ledger too.

Anger says, “I have been good enough to earn an answer.” Shame says, “I have been bad enough to lose my place.” Both reactions leave you on the side of the road with lights in the mirror. You still treat God as an officer who rewards good behavior or writes you up for bad behavior.

God never owes us the answer we want. He also does not receive His children because they managed a good week. Believers come because Christ has brought them near.

Who Has the Right to Call God Father?

Jesus’ opening word raises a serious question. Who has the right to enter the presence of the holy God and say, “Father”?

Scripture does not teach that every person is God’s child by adoption. Every human being bears God’s image and owes Him worship, but sinners stand under His righteous judgment. Only those who receive Christ by faith receive “the right to become children of God” (John 1:12, ESV).

So how do strangers become children? Look at the cross.

Throughout His earthly life, Jesus addressed God as Father. Even while His enemies crucified Him, He prayed, “Father, forgive them” (Luke 23:34, ESV). Yet in the darkness He cried:

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46, ESV)

The Trinity did not break apart at Golgotha. The Father did not stop loving the Son, and the eternal Son did not cease to share the one divine life with the Father and the Spirit. Yet Christ, our incarnate Mediator and substitute, bore the curse and judgment our sin deserved. He endured the judicial abandonment signified by that cry so that sinners united to Him would never face God’s condemning wrath.

The true Son took our place so that, in Him, we could receive the standing of sons and daughters.

Does the Gospel Give Us More Than Forgiveness?

God’s courtroom verdict matters. In justification, God declares the believer righteous because Christ’s righteousness belongs to us through faith. He does not overlook our guilt or issue a warning. Christ paid for our sin in full, and God gives us a complete and righteous acquittal.

Then God brings the justified sinner into His household. United to Christ, we receive adoption:

“In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ.” (Ephesians 1:4–5, ESV)

Justification and adoption are distinct gifts, and Christ gives us both. The Judge declares us righteous, and the Father welcomes us home. He says, “You are Mine. You belong at My table.”

Through the Son, in one Spirit, we have access to the Father (Ephesians 2:18). Christian prayer rests on that Trinitarian grace. The Son opened the way. The Spirit helps us cry, “Abba! Father!” The Father hears His children.

How Should Adoption Change the Way I Pray?

Many of us start prayer with a list: God, I need this. Would You fix that? Please change this situation. Then we wonder why prayer feels flat. We ran past the Father to get to the stuff.

This week, pause over the first words: Our Father in heaven. Say Father and remember whose you are in Christ. Say in heaven and remember who He is: holy, mighty, and Lord over all.

When anger rises over an unanswered prayer, confess the belief beneath it: I am acting as though God owes me. When shame keeps you from prayer, confess that too: I am acting as though my performance purchased my place. Then look again to Christ. Your standing rests on His obedience, His cross, and His resurrection.

Adoption does not promise that the Father will grant every request in the form we choose. It promises that He hears us, loves us, and rules with perfect wisdom. We come as children, with confidence and reverence, because Jesus has brought us home.

Come and Meet With Us

If you are looking for a church in West Palm Beach, join us at Belvedere Church this Sunday at 11:00 AM at 301 Cherry Road. You do not need to sort out your life before you walk through the door. Come hear what Christ has done for sinners who could never earn their way into God’s family.

Jesus secured more than a reduced charge. He secured a righteous verdict and a place at the Father’s table.

Watch the full sermon: Our Father in Heaven (Matthew 6)